Articles Tagged withlos angeles DUI defense attorney

It’s bad enough that a DUI conviction can wipe out your bank account or drive up your credit card bill. Between the fines, court costs and other associated expenses—like DUI driver school tuition and added commuting costs—you could pay as much as $7,500 out of pocket. But you could also face a longer-term problem of unemployment. When you lose your job because of a DUI or struggle to get a new one afterwards, it adds insult to injury.

If you’ve been earning some extra cash as an Uber or a Lyft driver, you’ll have to find another way to fill your wallet. Uber is already fairly picky about DUIs on a driving record; in California, Uber won’t even hire you if your record shows that you’ve had a DUI within the last 10 years.

But what if you’ve been working as an Uber driver, and then you get a DUI? Will you be able to keep driving?

Drivers arrested for DUI in Los Angeles usually have a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or higher. But there are times when a DUI suspect’s BAC measures much higher—so high that you wonder how they ever managed to even get behind the wheel of a vehicle, much less drive it.

In Henrico County, Virginia, 44-year-old Angela Gittings faces DUI charges after she hit several vehicles outside an area high school. Police measured her blood alcohol content at 0.38, more than four times the legal limit. Gittings was also driving without a license; the DMV had revoked it because of previous DUIs.

According the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, a BAC of 0.31 to 0.45 poses a “significant risk of death in most drinkers due to suppression of vital life functions.” People with this level of alcohol may lose consciousness and/or suffer from life-threatening alcohol poisoning.

The NIAAA also states that a BAC reading of 0.16 to 0.30 significantly impair a person’s speech, memory, coordination, attention, reaction time and balance. It also has a very negative impact on a person’s driving-related skills, judgment and decision making.

Planning to celebrate the March 17th holiday honoring the Irish saint? Better make sure that you have a designated driver–or at least an alternate form of transportation–for that night if you want to avoid charges of DUI in Los Angeles or any other jurisdiction. Police departments across the country are warning that they plan to be out in full force to ensure that the roads remain as safe as possible.

They have reason for concern. The WalletHub website recently posted some sobering statistics on DUIs on Saint Patrick’s Day. They report that in four years, from 2009-2013, 276 people died in DUI-related accidents on March 17th. (The Centers for Disease Control state that 30 people a day usually die in such accidents, so that’s more than twice the typical number of deaths.) The drivers involved tend to be more than just a little tipsy; WalletHub said that 75 percent of those involved in fatal accidents have more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in their blood.

The St. Patrick’s Day DUI accidents also occur more frequently–every 46 minutes, according to WalletHub, versus the CDC’s estimate that a DUI-related death occurs every 51 minutes on the average day.

Most arrests for DUI in Los Angeles don’t make the headlines. That’s actually good, because it means that the driver did not kill anyone, injure anyone seriously or cause extensive property damage.

But news reports from all around the country do carry stories every day about a DUI driver who has caused irreparable harm. In just a one-week time period, media sources reported on these incidents:

• A judge in Springfield, Massachusetts, revoked bail for a woman accused in an August crash that left a 16-year-old paralyzed from the chest down. The court had initially released Jomaris Colon on $2,000 bail. After Colon’s second probation violation, a judge ordered her back to jail for at least 90 days.

MASS Live reports that the victim, Alex Scafuri, had been skateboarding home from his school’s volleyball tryouts when Colon hit him. The 26-year old driver, who didn’t have a license, allegedly fled the scene after the accident.

The prosecutor claims to have videos from various stores that day that show Colon making alcohol purchases. Meanwhile, MASS Live website reports that Scafuri’s family is performing the painful task of clearing out all of the sports equipment that the teen will no longer be able to use.

Obviously, driving under the influence – or even close to under the influence – is dangerous business, and it can (and does) lead to thousands of death and countless injuries and traumas every year. However, DUI defendants are people too – people with jobs, lives and families.

What happens if police arrest you for this crime, but you need to take care of young children?

Police working Los Angeles DUI cases have to deal with some pretty difficult accident scenes. But there are probably few worse things than having to handle the aftermath of a DUI incident that involves young children, especially when one of them dies.

When El Cajon police officers arrived at an accident scene in the city around 10 p.m. on April 4, they found a 2010 Hyundai Accent that had had crashed into a telephone pole. They discovered 31-year old Brandy Teague and her three injured children inside the vehicle. Emergency vehicles transported the three children, ages 10, 3 and 2, to a nearby hospital, where doctors pronounced the three-year-old girl dead. The other two children suffered serious injuries but should recover.

It must have been a terrifying experience for the children. The oldest in the car, a 10-year old boy, ran to a nearby home to seek help after the accident, according to Fox5 San Diego news. An area resident reported the child had blood on his face and glass stuck in his eye.

Police speculated that Teague may have fallen asleep at the wheel of her vehicle just before the crash. Because she complained of pain, emergency responders took her to the hospital, but she didn’t stay there long. She ended up in the jail charged with gross vehicular manslaughter, cruelty to a child and driving under the influence of drugs.

According to MADD, 1,145 children die each year as a result of a traffic accident. Of those cases, 17 percent involve a driver operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Locating a seasoned and qualified Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer is a critical part of the process of reclaiming your life, your time and your peace of mind. Call ex-prosecutor Michael Kraut for a free consultation right now.